The Aurora City Council on Monday unanimously approved an incentive package worth up to $300 million to cement a deal for a massive entertainment complex near Denver International Airport.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord Entertainment Co. plans to build an $800 million Western-themed hotel and entertainment complex in Aurora. It would include about 1,500 hotel rooms and more than 400,000 square feet of conference space.

The project is expected to be built in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo, which would relocate to an adjacent facility. Gaylord and the National Western Stock Show, however, do not have a deal with each other or a contract for property.

The location that appears to be the front-runner straddles the Denver-Aurora border southwest of DIA near Tower Road and Peña Boulevard. The stock show would be in Denver, while the Gaylord complex would be in Aurora.

The vote by the Aurora City Council relates only to the Gaylord portion of the project and does not include any effort to move the stock show.

Under the agreement between the city of Aurora, the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority and Gaylord, the entertainment company will get incentives including a cap on property taxes and tax-increment financing.

In addition, the city will apply for funding from the Regional Tourism Act.

The city can terminate the agreement if land for the proj ect isn't purchased by year's end.

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For its part, Gaylord agreed not to use "Denver" in the name of the hotel it plans to build in Aurora.

At 1,500 rooms, the Gaylord project would be the largest hotel in metro Denver. The downtown Denver Sheraton, currently the city's largest hotel, boasts 1,231 rooms, 82 suites and 133,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.

"This is a single project that on its own will make Aurora a destination," said Wendy Mitchell, president and chief executive of the Aurora Economic Development Council.

Meanwhile, stock-show officials are still talking with the city about a possible move from the stock show's existing location at Interstate 70 and Brighton Boulevard, as well as evaluating options for locations outside of downtown, said Paul Andrews, president and CEO of National Western.

National Western's lease for its existing complex runs until 2040, so the organization needs the city's consent to move. The city and county of Denver is willing to invest a maximum of $150 million in the new National Western complex. How that deal would be structured has not been determined.

National Western has been talking for years about relocating from its complex. The buildings on the site are considered obsolete, and the stock show has no place to expand.

A potential move eastward, however, has proved controversial, as some downtown business leaders worry about lost business and tax revenue that would be shifted to Aurora. Additionally, there are concerns that the new complex would pull business away from the publicly funded Colorado Convention Center and downtown hotels.

The 105-year-old stock show runs 16 days each January and has attracted more than 600,000 people and 15,000 head of livestock in each of the past 14 years, with 644,818 attendees this year. In 2006, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce estimated the show's economic impact at about $84 million.

Publicly traded Gaylord owns four of the largest convention hotels in the country, including properties in Florida; Texas; the Washington, D.C., area; and Nashville, where it also owns the Grand Ole Opry. It typically spends between $500 million and $850 million to build a hotel complex, and its projects generally take about five years to complete.

Because of the high price tag for the company's hotels, Gaylord tends to seek hefty incentives for its projects.

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